


What a headache!

by snugglicious



Category: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Genre: Addiction, Gen, Headaches & Migraines, Hurt/Comfort, Massage, Substance Abuse, Wish Fulfillment
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-03
Updated: 2021-01-03
Packaged: 2021-03-13 09:47:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,073
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28526451
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/snugglicious/pseuds/snugglicious
Summary: Major Kira has a major headache. Dr. Bashir uncovers her secret.Essentially just an excuse to satisfy my need for some gentle Julian doctoring.Rating on the safe side as mentions substance misuse.
Comments: 22
Kudos: 29





	What a headache!

The infirmary doors slid open with a soft hiss. Blessedly quiet after the bustling busyness of the promenade, but still the lights were too bright, and the room seemed...empty.  
‘Probably just as well’ she thought, recalling her dressing down of the eager young doctor a few weeks before. She wouldn’t be here at all, but the constant pain had ground down her resolve to be self sufficient and not rely on the Federation if she could help it.  
She wavered by the door, finally turning to leave, but before she could make it back out to the crowded promenade, she was stopped by a voice, addressed to her back as she tried to retreat.

“Can I help you Major?”  
The question was softly worded, tone gently curious. She slowly turned back around to face Dr. Bashir to find him regarding her carefully, dark eyes already attentive and assessing. She had been worried that he would resent her for her brash demeanour towards him, but his face held no sign of hostility.  
“I just...uh, never mind,” she faltered. “You’re probably really busy anyway. I’ll come back another time.”  
He smiled, seeing the thinly veiled anxiety behind her words.  
“Not at all. In fact it’s been a slow day in here today. You’re saving me from the monotony of auditing the supply locker.”

“Now,” he asked quietly. “Why don’t you tell me how long you’ve had that headache?”   
She raised an eyebrow in an unspoken question, and he offered a self-effacing smile. “I’m a doctor” he says. “It’s my job to notice when someone’s in pain. Computer - dim infirmary lights to 40%.”  
After a moment, the pounding pressure behind her eyes started to recede to a background static.

Bashir approached her slowly, as though sensing that she still wanted to turn and bolt out of the door at the first opportunity, noting the unnaturally stiff and unmoving way she held her head.  
“Let’s see... light sensitivity, neck stiffness... any nausea or dizziness?” She shook her head carefully, allowing him to place a warm hand on her elbow and gently guide her towards a bio bed. Her unwilling legs felt unsteady and she was grateful for the supporting hand.  
“Come and take a seat. I just need to run a few scans and we’ll have you feeling better in no time.”

Eyes tightly closed against the awkward waiting, she focused on listening to the beeping from the tricorder as he moved the scanner over her. ‘Any minute now...,’ she thought, with a sinking feeling of resignation.  
“Hmm...Raised cortisol levels, depleted immunoglobulin, neurotransmitter imbalance, and...that’s odd. I’m reading three different analgesic drugs in your blood, two of which are restricted substances and none of which should be used together or for a prolonged period of time.” He looked at her with a stern expression. “How long have you been self medicating Major?”

Swallowing nervously, keeping her eyes focused on the floor, she mumbled reluctantly, “I guess I’ve been a bit stressed recently. I didn’t want to bother you for something as small as a few headaches so I started just taking care of them myself. After a few weeks the first medication I tried stopped working. I managed to get my hands on something a bit stronger...I...I didn’t think it would be a problem... In the resistance...”

“I understand Major” he said, in a softer voice. “You’ve been used to pushing your body well past its limits for such a long time. It’ll take a while for your mind to adjust to life after the occupation.” He released a long sigh. “Well, I’m afraid I can’t give you anything for your headache at the moment; not while there are still so many medications already in your bloodstream.” He stepped around the bed so that he was behind her, placing his fingers lightly on the sides of her neck. “I just need to check your muscle tone” he explained. “May I?” She nodded, and he started to press his fingertips firmly into the muscles of her neck and shoulders. She hissed in pain when his fingers dug into some tight spots. 

“It would seem that the pain you’re experiencing now is a rebound headache,” he explained, walking back around the bio bed to face her again. “I imagine it started off as a simple tension headache. The medications you’ve been dosing yourself with have only removed the pain, but the muscle tension and chronic stress that caused the pain in the first place have gone untreated for too long. Now you’ve developed a tolerance to the drugs you’ve been using, which is why they’re not helping any more and the pain is getting worse. Your body has forgotten how to deal with normal pain signals. Unfortunately for you, I can’t give you any muscle relaxants until the other medications are out of your system, so if it’s alright with you, I’m going to do some deep tissue massage to loosen up your neck and shoulders.”

After a brief internal debate, the need for relief won out and she nodded her consent.   
“You’ll need to remove your jacket and lie down on your back,” he instructed as he moved to the replicator. She did so, not liking exposed feeling or the way the cool air raised a tingle of goosebumps up her arms. Bashir returned after a moment with a small bowl of fragrant balm and wheeling a stool along with him which he positioned behind the head of the biobed. Taking a seat, he gently slipped his slick hands beneath her neck and began pressing up into the sore muscles there. “I’m afraid this is going to be a bit painful. Try to breathe through the pain, but let me know if it gets too much.”

Despite the inviting warmth of his hands and the gentleness of his touch, she stiffened, unaccustomed to the alien sensation of being cared for and feeling more vulnerable than she wanted to admit. Bashir paused his ministrations. “Try to relax Major. I know this is probably making you feel uncomfortable but it really is the only thing I can do to help you right now.”

“I know. Frontier medicine, right?”

He smiled sheepishly, embarrassed to be reminded of his over-zealous first meeting with the Major. “I am sorry” he admitted quietly. “Sometimes I just lose myself in my enthusiasm.”

Kira took a deep breath and let it out slowly, trying to force herself to relax. “I’m sorry too doctor. I may have...over reacted.” 

Bashir resumed his attentions on her neck, moving his hands up to dig his fingertips into the back of her head where it joined her neck. She groaned in pain and he slowed his movements, focusing on kneading out the knots he’d found there. “Breathe Kira. That’s it...just breathe. There we go...just like that.”  
She allowed herself to relax, lulled by his soft words and the repetitive movements of his hands. Still feeling a little awkward in the silence, she asked “So, what happens after this? Are you going to tell Sisko?”

“Don’t worry, I won’t need to tell him anything specific; your medical records and treatment are protected by doctor-patient confidentiality, though it might be worth asking the Commander for a temporary reduction in your working hours. As for how we proceed with your treatment, I recommend a two step treatment plan.”   
She gave a noncommittal noise, and he was quiet for a moment, thinking, though he kept up the movements of his hands, which she had to admit were doing a wonderful job of easing the tension she’d been holding onto for months.

“If you carry on over-using painkillers you’ll have more headaches like this one, so the first thing we’ll need to do is get you through the withdrawal stage of stopping the drugs. You’ll need to stay in the infirmary for at least the first few days when the withdrawal symptoms and pain will be at their worst; we’ll use non-pharmaceutical pain management methods until you’re out the other side. Once we’re out of the acute stage I’d like to focus on longer term preventative strategies to stop you getting headaches in the first place, and some stress management skills.”

She huffed incredulously. “Doctor, look around you. The station is barely functional, I have so much work to do I can barely find the time to eat, not to mention the constant subspace calls I have to deal with from the Bajoran Provisional Government.” Her voice took on a note of bitterness. “I don’t have time for your ‘stress management’ strategies! I should be out there doing something useful instead of being in here having a massage!”

“Getting medical treatment for an illness,” he reframed gently. “There’s an old Earth saying one of my professors at med school used in our lessons on preventative medicine. ‘If you don’t take time for your wellness, you’ll be forced to make time for your illness.’ Self care is a necessity Major.”

He shifted his hands to rest either side of her head and started sweeping his thumbs from the top of her nose to her temples, smoothing the tension from her forehead. When he walked his fingers along her brow bones and pressed into the spot just where her nose ridges ended, she cried out at the sudden intensity of the pain.   
“Easy,” he soothed, continuing the tiny circular motion of his fingers. “The muscle I’m working on now is your corrugator supercilii. It’s a key player in tension headaches, with lots of tender trigger points. I know it hurts, but decompressing the nerves here will really help.”

She let his litany of explanation wash over her,finally beginning to feel herself relax.

They both jumped as Kira’s combadge chirped. “Sisko to Major Kira, I have Minister Sharu waiting to speak to you on subspace...”

Kira started to raise herself up from the bed, but was stopped by the insistent press of the doctor’s hands on her shoulders.

“Commander, this is Dr. Bashir. I’m afraid Major Kira is unwell and I have relieved her of duty for the next two days while she receives treatment.”

Sisko’s voice sounded annoyed when he replied. “Two days?! Doctor, the Minister...”

“Will have to wait until the Major is feeling better,” he cut in before Sisko’s rant could built steam. “Commander, as the station’s Chief Medical Officer my judgement on this cannot be overruled. Major Kira’s health is my primary concern right now, and as such she will be unavailable until I say otherwise.”

“Of course doctor. And Major? Make sure you follow the doctor’s orders! Sisko out.”

Kira sat up fully on the bed, to find the doctor regarding her with an amused smile and a raised eyebrow. She surprised herself by returning his smile, enjoying the small moment of shared amusement. “Well, I guess that told me!”

“I guess it did. How does your head feel now?”

She rolled her neck and shoulders experimentally, surprised to find that the movements were much easier and did not bring on the searing pain in her head she had been expecting. She looked up to see a hint of an ‘I told you so’ smile on Bashir’s face, though he had enough self preservation to refrain from voicing the sentiment.

“Now that you’re feeling a little better, we’re going to go to your quarters and you’re going to hand over all of your painkillers.” He raised his hand to forestall her protest, and continued in a softer voice. “I’m going to ask you to trust me that I’ll help you through this Nerys. You have an addiction and I’m going to help you to overcome it, but you need to trust me.”

She balked at his use of the word ‘addiction’ and the denial was on the tip of her tongue before she forced herself to think back over the last few months; to remember all of the times she’d reached for her black-market tablets and hyposprays so that she could push through the pain and keep working; the secretive trips to the bathroom when she was on duty to gulp down the tablets hidden in her pocket; the mantra she had come to live by every day: ‘don’t show weakness.’

She raised herself to stand straighter and looked him in the eyes, trying to regain some control of herself.  
“Alright; let’s do this.”

**Author's Note:**

> My first ever work of fanfiction. Constructive feedback very welcome!


End file.
